I’m sitting at the airport for my third trip in the past month. I love to travel and my load is certainly getting lighter each time. Today I carry only a backpack and purse with all the stuff I need for a three day trip! I truly live for keeping it simple! 

Last night my friend said she would need a backpack for her shoes alone! While I remember a time like that myself that is surely not the case now. It is so nice to get where you are going and not have to lug a bunch of baggage around!

Here are a few things I have learned over years for simple packing:

• Roll your outfits into bundles. It keeps the wrinkles out and you can grab a complete outfit in a flash! Much easier to stack in a backpack. For an overnight trip I use a large purse. 
• Choose colors that are similar and can go with the same pair of shoes.
• Don’t carry the whole makeup ensemble. Decide what you will absolutely need and stick to it. 
• Don’t bring the whole kitchen sink… empty out that purse! Don’t bring loose receipts, credit cards, or stuff that you won’t need on the trip. It simply wastes space!
• I have learned over time to enjoy the experience rather than fuss with the mess.

How do you travel light for quick trips? Feel free to share your tips!

This organizer has a confession to make. I don’t like lists! (Gasp) You now, checklists. Now don’t get me wrong lists are good, I actually make a to do list every day. But it’s those chore lists and cleaning lists that I dislike so much. I have seen it time and time again with my clients and myself actually. Some of us and perhaps you too are perfectionists. There are others that use checklists religiously and I commend you for keeping up with it.

You would think that being a perfectionist means we get stuff done with ease but sometimes it is the complete opposite. See, every time I try to use a list, I focus more on the list itself. It has to be just right or the “system” has to be just right before I can get started. A client showed me the elaborate systems she had tried one day and I told her she was spending more time fussing over the lists than actually cleaning.

For us simplicity was key. I told her to stop with the lists and just make cleaning a habit. For instance, I bought a set of cleaning supplies for each bathroom. When I help kids get ready for bed my habit is now to do a quick clean up (because the supplies are right there) and I don’t have to do a deep clean nearly as often! These spaces almost maintain themselves. The laundry gets done because it is a habit wrapped in with our morning routine.

The kids have certain things they have to help out with each day, not as a chore to earn a reward, but as being part of this team. They have a list of things they can do for money, but they rarely opt to do that.

How about you? Are you a lover of checklists? Or not so much?

When school starts up that usually means a new season of soccer in our house. In your house it might be football, dance or some other activity. They certainly don’t give us Mom’s much time to get the school schedule figured out before the activities come piling on top. Of course, the more kids you have the crazier the schedule!

Among the chaos we tend to seek perfection, we envy a picture perfect schedule. The truth is we go through seasons of life and sometimes a few seasons are going to be crazier than others.

Yes we would like to get the kids, fed at a normal hour while sitting down with the whole family, homework done in a quiet serene space and bedtime gone over like a breeze. However, most days we feel frenzied as if walking on a tight rope. Take a deep breath with me now!

Remember, your bet is good enough! Now is the time to pull together as a family. Perhaps dinner has to be done in shifts and things aren’t quite as put together as they normally are. Enjoy these more chaotic years because the older the kids get the years seem to go by that much quicker!

Having a smaller house is certainly easier to clean! I love that it only takes me 10 minutes compared to the old 45 minutes to vacuum the downstairs. Less stuff equals less mess, who would have thought?

I have noticed one little problem though, the kids rooms are so small that when they make a normal mess it seems so much worse! In the old house you could still see the floor have room to play and honestly, just forget about it until the next day if you really had too. Not anymore! There is no room for a mess and still get around.

To fix this problem,  I got out my trusty timer and put the kids up to a challenge. I gave them 5 minutes. They had to pick up toys and put them back in their designated “home.” Whoever worked diligently the whole time and picked up as much as they could, would get a small treat at the end. Five minutes is just about long enough to get the whole room picked up if they do it without dragging feet. That is where the treat comes in. Nothing wrong with a little bribery, I mean motivation!

This works for us big kids too. Using a timer will help you stay on task for a specified amount of time. Take 5, 10 or 15 minutes and do a sweep through the house putting away out of place items. Pick a time each day to do this and you will be one step closer to taming the clutter monster.

School is back in session for us, so we have been spending some time getting things in order for the new school year. I have one child entering 5th grade, one in st and the other in preschool. I can’t believe how big these kids are getting!
Here is what we do to organize our school shopping experience:

Consolidate Your Lists
With three kids I was done shuffling multiple lists around so we consolidated everything we needed into one big list. Having a master list saved on time dramatically which is a necessity when shopping with the kids in tow!

Shop For Sales
The school supply circulars are starting to come out in the newspapers, so be on the lookout for the best deals.

Sort It All Out
Now sort all the supplies out for each child. To make sorting easier and to coral all of the school supplies I used a separate bin for each child. As we checked the supplies off of the lists we then put them in the designated bin. Now we can tuck them away until school starts and easily add the few extra things we need to pick up.

Label It
Now that you have all of your school supplies neat and orderly, don’t forget the labels! Every school has different rules for what should be labeled. Make sure you label backpacks, lunchboxes, clothing and outerwear too! After you make the investment on all of your back to school gear you don’t want it to end up lost forever!